Joaquín Mondragón

The story begins with a group of five boys and a museum guide, who shows them a secret room, inside which is "the Book of Life." She tells them a story from the book that revolves around a love triangle between the three friends Manolo, Joaquín and María. La Catrina, ruler of the Land of the Remembered, and Xibalba, ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, appear at the Day of the Dead celebration in the town of San Ángel, where they observe Manolo, Joaquín and María playing. Xibalba proposes to La Catrina to make a bet and each one chooses a boy as her champion. La Catrina bets that Manolo will marry María, while Xibalba bets that it will be Joaquín. If Catrina wins, Xibalba will stop intervening in men's affairs, but if he wins, they will exchange kingdoms. However, Xibalba cheats by giving Joaquín a medal of eternal life, which makes the wearer invincible. The next day, María releases a herd of animals, which stampede through the square causing a commotion, which angers her father, General Posada, and he decides to send her to a convent in Spain to become an educated young woman. . When the day of his departure arrives, Manolo gives him a baby pig, Chuy (one of the animals María had tried to rescue), and María gives him a new guitar with an engraving that says "Always play from the heart." from the heart), while Joaquín is left with nothing to give or receive. As the train leaves, Manolo and Joaquín run after it, saying goodbye to María. As the years pass, Manolo is trained by his father Carlos to become a professional bullfighter according to the Sánchez family tradition, while Joaquín becomes the hero of San Ángel, saving towns everywhere, with the help of the medal of eternal life. The day María returns, Manolo's first bullfight takes place. During the act Manolo impresses María with his skills, but when the time comes to finish off the bull, he refuses as always. This disappoints Carlos and the rest of the audience, with María being the only one who applauds and supports Manolo's decision. That night, during a party in honor of María's return organized by her father, she learns that he is planning her marriage to Joaquín so that he can remain in San Ángel and protect them from the bandit Chakal (who had had the medal of eternal life before Xibalba recovered it). However, María finds herself conflicted due to her feelings for Manolo and her duty to her people; and Joaquín's macho attitude irritates her to such a degree that she decides to leave the party and go to her room. Manolo arrives and composes a serenade for María, in which they almost kiss; but she doesn't plan to make things easy for Manolo. She goes downstairs to give Manolo his guitar back when she runs into Joaquín, who asks her to marry him, with the guests as witnesses. Manolo instantly enters, and there they have a small fight where Joaquín ends up leaving. Suddenly, a boy warns of the arrival of the bandits, and once again the town's hero appears to fight. In the confrontation, one of the bandits realizes that Joaquín has the medal of eternal life, so the troop retreats to notify Chakal (who has been obsessively searching for said medal for years), and he announces an invasion. to San Angel. Joaquín accompanies María to her house and when he says goodbye to her he asks her to think about the proposal; him bringing out a more sensitive side of her by showing her that she has been saving a hat that Maria lost the day she left San Ángel, and that she is the reason he always keeps going on her task. as a hero of the people. Moved, María responds with an inaccurate yes. Later, while María was looking at a photo book with Chuy, Manolo knocks on the window asking her to see him on the bridge at dawn, and he runs away. Xibalba realizes that if they both meet he will lose the bet, so she sends a two-headed snake to ruin that meeting. María and Manolo meet secretly on the outskirts of San Ángel, declaring their love for each other when they are interrupted by Xibalba's snake; which bites Mary. When Joaquín and General Posada blame Manolo for not protecting María, he makes a pact with Xibalba to be able to reunite with María, letting himself be bitten by the two heads of the snake, and dying instantly. Manolo awakens in the land of the Remembered, where he is reunited with his mother Carmen and several deceased members of his illustrious family. They guide him to the Catrina castle but he finds that it is now Xibalba who rules this kingdom; He explains to them his bet with Catrina and reveals that a bite from the snake only puts his victim in a kind of trance; Therefore Mary is still alive but asleep. Manolo realizes that he has fallen for Xibalba's deception and, very upset, assures him that he will tell La Catrina. With the help of his mother Carmen and his grandfather Luis Sánchez, Manolo sets off to the Cave of Souls (the only way to reach the land of the Forgotten), but to enter they must face a labyrinth guarded by a stone giant. . Manolo is trapped there with three huge stone spheres, which he manages to avoid, in order to escape from the labyrinth. The giant prepares to judge Manolo with a monumental sword, which Manolo pierces, because his heart is pure and brave. Inside the cave, they meet the Wax Man (in charge of maintaining the balance of the kingdoms) and the Book of Life, who lead them to where the Magic Waterfalls are that unite all the kingdoms. Seeing in the Book of Life that Manolo is writing his own story instead of living the one that was written for him, the Wax Man sets out to help him get his life back. Using one of the waterfalls, everyone is transported to the land of the Forgotten, where Catrina is located. Upon finding her, Manolo tells her that Xibalba cheated. Enraged, Catrina summons him and once he appears she demands him for what she has done. Since Manolo was deceived, it is only fair to bring him back to life, but Xibalba refuses to cooperate. Manolo and Catrina persuade him to convince him and Xibalba creates a new bet: If Manolo manages to defeat in a bullfight all the bulls that have died at the hands of the Sánchez family (which according to Luis would be thousands), he will return to life; but if he fails he will be forgotten forever. Meanwhile in the land of the living, Carlos is on the outskirts of the city with Chakal's army. Joaquín was about to marry María (both noticeably saddened by Manolo's death), until someone shouts interrupting the wedding, announcing that the bandit Chakal has arrived. Back in the land of the Forgotten, the bulls from the bullfight unite, forming a giant bull that tries to destroy Manolo. After the beast crashes giving Manolo the opportunity to kill it, he refuses and decides to play his guitar, singing a song in which he apologizes to the bull for the unjust death of his fellow men at the hands of the Sánchez family bullfighters. . The bull gives up and disappears, turning into hundreds of yellow petals (managing to rest in peace). Recognizing Manolo's triumph, Xibalba joins Catrina and the Wax Man so that the three of them can revive Manolo. Upon joining the battle, in which Joaquín's medal of eternal life is taken away, the deceased members of the Sánchez family appear to fight. During the battle, they manage to take the medal from Chakal. Afterwards, the bell of the church in the town of San Ángel falls, but Joaquín holds the bell about to lock Manolo, Chakal and him in it since Manolo was on top of Chakal. Then, Chakal lights a bomb as a plan for him to die and destroy the town of San Ángel, but Manolo pushes Joaquín, locking himself with Chacal inside the bell. When the dynamite explodes, they turn the bell and Manolo comes out without any injuries since Joaquín gave him the medal of eternal life, Joaquín hurt his eye to save Manolo. Later, Manolo declares his love for María and they end up getting married, and Catrina and Xibalba forgive each other since they were fighting and they kiss at the top of the bell tower and sing with everyone in the town and also the deceased. In the end, the people visiting the museum leave and the guide turned out to be Catrina saying goodbye and Xibalba appears and Catrina receives a kiss from Xibalba. The film ends with the wax man telling us to write our destiny.